July 01, 2008

The uniqueness of DuzzQuest

I suppose I should justify my claim that DuzzQuest is worth your time.

Basically: DuzzQuest is the first game in history that feels like it was made at a party. It doesn't have the flavour of some nerd in his bedroom making a game about something INCREDIBLY FANTASTICAL to put his mind off the desperate loneliness of his sad little existence; instead, it feels like someone slightly tipsy pulled out his laptop at an Australian drinking bash and started poking fun at all his friends while they cheered him on. Where Nelly Cootalot is technically an homage to the author's girlfriend, DuzzQuest feels more like, well...

DuzzQuest is a first foray into the unexplored field of surrealistic docu-comedy games. There's clearly something unique going on here that I can even utter that sentence.

It is in part a genuine if indirect documentation of a circle of friends, complete with background tunes by the band they of course are in, The Midnight Express. Some of the dialogue lines were obviously recorded at an actual party, for brilliant effect. Go ahead and see what happens if you try taking people's beer bottles from them; deliberately induce hallucinations in yourself to advance the plot; explore the mystery of why that guy is suddenly wearing a dress.

Of all the games that could have been made by some random guy using his friends for characters, DuzzQuest is possibly the best thing that could conceivable have happened. Bless those nutty Aussies.

DuzzQuest is also liked by CaptainD and that's about it.Download here; the speech pack is probably worth your time as well.